Kirk Winemiller


Kirk O. Winemiller is an American ecologist, known for research on community ecology, life history theory, food webs, aquatic ecosystems, tropical ecology and fish biology. A strong interest has been convergent evolution and patterns, causes and consequences of biological diversity, particularly with respect to fishes. His research also has addressed the influence of hydrology on the ecological dynamics of fluvial ecosystems and applications of this knowledge for managing aquatic biodiversity and freshwater resources in the United States and other regions of the world.
He currently is a University Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor at Texas A&M University and an Elected Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, American Fisheries Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Works

Winemiller has produced more than 240 scientific papers and 25 book chapters on topics ranging from food web ecology to the evolutionary ecology of fishes. He coauthored the book "The Science of Instream Flows: A Review of the Texas Instream Flow Program", and with Gary Polis, coedited the book "Food Webs: Integration of Patterns and Dynamics". In 1992 he received the Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America in recognition for his paper on food web ecology published in Ecological Monographs and which formed a part of his doctoral dissertation.
Winemiller's early research on the life history of fish species resulted in the development of the triangular continuum, or E-P-O model. The model arose from an analysis of reproductive traits and demographic parameters using his own field-derived datasets and data compiled via review of hundreds of articles and reports. Building on these analyses, fundamental inferences were developed that unified earlier life history continua in one dimension, such as fast vs. slow life histories, and r vs. K strategists. The E-P-O model integrated, and to an extent reconciled, the much-debated r/K and bet-hedging theories. The E-P-O model predicts how spatial and temporal environmental variation influences selection for reproductive strategies, and further explains previously identified tradeoffs among demographic variables. The model has helped to clarify the influence of density dependence during population responses to harvest and environmental disturbances over variable scales of space and time.
Winemiller also made influential contributions in food web ecology, the study of networks of species interactions. His extensive field studies, laboratory dietary and isotopic analyses, and quantitative innovations revealed that networks of predator-prey interactions were far more complex than had been previously described. He discovered that the structure of freshwater and estuarine food webs was strongly influenced by seasonal environmental variation, selection of methods, units and resolution scales for network components, and species life history strategies influencing population dynamics and relative abundances of consumers and resources. This body of work, together with his research on fish community ecology, reveals how functional traits influence the manner that organisms respond to abiotic and biotic environmental features. Winemiller has been a proponent of the idea that universal form-function relationships and constraints result in widespread convergence of species adaptations and the structure of ecological communities in similar environments.

Selected bibliography